Lost Butterflies
by Mutantfan
Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer. Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13  
  
"Sara...Sara's..."Grissom wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "D...dead." Catherine dropped the coffee mug she'd been holding and the shattering noise as the ceramic mug connected with the floor filled the silent room.  
Warrick stared blankly at Grissom like a child who'd just been slapped and couldn't understand why. Nick's eyes were steely and distant. He slumped to the floor and clutched his head with his hands. If he could just pass out then none of this would be real. He'd wake up and go for his shift, with Sara greeting him cheerfully.  
"H-how?" Catherine spluttered. The single word took all of her strength and she was amazed Grissom could even reply. "A robbery at her home went wrong. She was, she was shot." He couldn't bear to tell them that Sara had been shot in the face with a shotgun and was beyond recognition, causing Doc Robbins to identify her by her DNA.  
"We...the scene..." Nick muttered from the floor. "We better get over there..." Grissom shook his head. "We're not allowed the case, we were too close." He explained what Brass had told him, causing them to argue for several minutes.  
Nick rose to his feet, "If I can't work her case then I'm at least gonna' see her." He headed out of the break room and towards the morgue. None of his colleagues attempted to stop him. They silently followed the fuming Texan.  
David sat in the morgue office, his eyes red and swollen from the many tears he had allowed to escape his eyes. Doc Robbins sat in a chair looking detached and vague. When he saw the night shift team enter the morgue he looked up in a way of acknowledging their presence, but continued to stare blankly at the far wall.  
The four CSI gathered around the slab where the body of the young brunette lay. Cold and lifeless, a sheet over her face, covering her lack of face. Grissom reached out and placed is hand over hers. So cold. Not like the joyous, fierce Sara Sidle he had worked with for over four years, but the tests had come back. The DNA profile was that of CSI Sara Sidle.  
  
Catherine stared into Grissom's sad eyes and felt tears escaping her own. The other two men left the morgue, sudden realization dawning on them. Sara would never greet them as they arrived at work, she'd never work a case with them again; she just wouldn't be there. She'd be replaced, just like Holly Gribbs, but no CSI could replace her. The young ambitious woman, who put her heart and soul into every case, was gone.  
Eventually Catherine left to try to find some solace in her work, leaving Grissom alone in the morgue with only a crying David and a dazed Doc Robbins. Neither could bring him the comfort that Sara had. So he poured his heart out in the cold and sterile place. Four years too late. "I'm sorry Sara. I couldn't take the risk... and I lost you. I've lost the one person in this world that I could ever take that risk for. I...I loved you Sara, but now it's too late, because you're gone."  
  
Nick stared at the lab report that had confirmed Sara's identity. He'd checked it over and over, but it was conclusive. It was Sara's DNA and it was Sara who lay dead in the morgue. Catherine left work early and spent the night with Lindsey, keeping her close, frightened of loosing her. Warrick finished his shift and went straight to a nightclub to drink himself stupid. Not his usual way of dealing with things, but this was the first time he'd lost someone who was like family. Grissom and Nick sat in the crime lab and as Nick rechecked the report for the eighth time something finally clicked in his mind. He'd read the autopsy and something had struck him as out of place, now he knew what. He threw the report on Grissom's desk. "That body has been dead over twenty- four hours." The aging CSI looked up at him from tear stained eyes, ashamed at how badly he was coping, especially in front of his colleagues. "I saw her last night, she was still very much alive." He continued. Grissom's expression went from distraught to an almost fearful expression. "Nick, you were the last one to see Sara alive?" Nick winced as his superior pointed it out, just as the sheriff walked through the door. A grim expression on his face. "In that case you'd best come with me." He handcuffed Nick, amongst protests from both Grissom and Brass who had accompanied the sheriff. "Nothing was disturbed at Sara's place, she knew her killer and you were the last one to see her officer Stokes. It's standard procedure." Nick's child like eyes were brimming with tears as they led him through the lab and towards the integration room. His colleagues stared at him as they passed through the lab and Greg sat in his office, staring at Nick with confusion. Did they really believe he was capable of murdering Sara? She was like a sister, he'd never hurt her, but to make matters worse they'd been arguing before she'd been murdered. It didn't look good for CSI Stokes. 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer. Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13 A/N: Indicate a flash back Chapter 2  
  
Nick Stokes sat at the table in the interrogation room with Brass, Grissom and the Sheriff. For once though he wasn't asking the questions. This time he was on the wrong side of the table.  
"Okay, Nick, just go through everything that happened the last time you saw Sara." Brass spoke as though he was talking to a child and trying desperately not to crack into a fit of rage. "I went over to her house during the day, a couple hours before shift. She opened the door on the second knock and seemed fine. She let me in. We talked, I left."  
"Care to be a little more vague?" The sheriff snapped. "You know the drill Stokes..." "What did you talk about?" Jim's patient voice interrupted. Nick looked down to the table.  
  
"I...I..."  
  
"What Stokes? You went back to your car and came back with a shotgun?" "I had to see if she was okay!" Nick shouted slamming his fist off the table.  
"Which is more than any of you have done lately. There was something seriously wrong with her and none of you noticed..." He paused and shook his head. He'd said too much. He'd let it slip. He'd broken his promise to her.  
Grissom had been silent until Nick's out burst and now he looked close to tears. "The thing about Sara is...was...that she was good at hiding what was wrong."He muttered. "She'd put aside personal problems and get on with the job."  
"Nick, what was wrong?" Brass continued, keeping up his professional demeanor. Nick looked down at his palms and then told them.  
  
He knocked on the door and heard her inside. After a few moments he knocked again and she opened the door with her weapon by her side, which, as they didn't start work for another few hours, he found odd. She'd been strange lately. Cold and distant.  
"Hey, can I come in?" She looked at him through sleep-deprived eyes and nodded, stepping aside to let him in. Then after a quick glance along the street she closed the door and followed him to the living room. The curtains were drawn and the early afternoon sun was kept out.  
She smiled sweetly, hoping to trick him like she'd done all the others, but Nick had been noticing her for almost a week now. It was too late to hide. "What's up?" He sat down on the couch and looked at her with concern etched on his face. "I could ask you same thing. The crime scene, yesterday. You flipped when you saw that Mercedes parked across the road. You've just seemed preoccupied lately." "It's nothing." Her voice broke slightly as she said nothing and Nick wasn't fooled. She saw it in his eyes. The concern and sympathy shone from the puppy eyes he was directing at her.  
She sat down and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm...I'm being stalked." Nick had been prepared for anything. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, not that he thought any would be the likely problem, but that had caught him off guard. At his silence she continued. "For two weeks now. I've noticed a Mercedes following me, at work, going to the store...but it always drove past. It never stopped. Not until yesterday. Someone broke into my house last week and someone sent me photographs of my whole day a few days ago..."  
Nick picked up his cell phone. "I'll call Brass, get a few officers to check the place..."  
  
"No!" She snatched the phone away and cancelled the call. "I can handle it. Just leave it Nick. Please, promise me that you'll leave it." "Sara! We're CSI, we know what a stalker can develop in to. From peeping Tom, to stalker to...to rapist. I won't let that happen." Her eyes were watering now and her face was painted in fear. "Nick...please. Don't tell anyone, especially Brass...or Grissom. I don't want them to know. I promise if anything happens I'll tell you. Please?"  
  
"You should have told us." Grissom's tone was quiet but lethal. It was full of disappointment. Brass was quietly staring at Nick with a frown on his aging face. The sheriff was the first to move and he left, slamming the door behind him, muttering something about setting an example. "Grissom..." "Just go Nick." The senior CSI mumbled. "You're suspended until this investigation is over. Do I make myself clear?" "But..." "No buts!" Grissom roared. "We have the case, the sheriff let us have it, but you won't be part of my team."  
Nick was angry now. He'd only kept his word like Sara had asked. He respected her, unlike Grissom who'd ignored her obvious distress. "I want to help!" "Yeah, and you did a great job while she was alive!" Grissom rose to his feet as the younger man stood and violently knocked his chair over.  
"At least I noticed. I saw how upset she was. You just ignored her. Left her alone and hoped you wouldn't have to deal with it. I might have screwed up keeping my promise, but at least I noticed her when she was alive. I guess things have to be dead for you to relate to them." He stormed out and slammed the door attracting the attention of nearby staff that looked curiously at the red face Texan as he stormed off.  
It wasn't his fault that she'd died. It wasn't. How could he have known things would grow to this level?  
"From peeping Tom, to stalker, to...to rapist." He should have made her report it. It was his fault. She was dead because of him. Then he stopped dead in his tracks and changed direction so he was heading to the morgue. He had to know if his suspicions were true. He prayed they weren't. He couldn't take that guilt. 


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer. Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: R A/N: Indicate a flash back   
  
Chapter 3  
  
Nick sat on the roof of the crime lab and hugged the bottle of bourbon he had bought after leaving the morgue. He held the report David had given him in the other and let the tears roam free from his eyes.  
He leaned slightly over the edge and contemplated taking his own life. He'd finished off most of the liquor and it wouldn't be hard to just slip off the edge and never wake up.  
That's when the fire exit opened and Catherine sat beside him. She noticed the bottle and tried to take it away. "C'mon Nicky, that's not good." He snatched it back and downed what was left. "It's...my...fault!" He shouted through his sobs. "I knew she was being stalked...that bastard...he...he" "I know." She soothed and placed her arm over his shoulder. "Grissom told us. He didn't mean what he said. He was just upset..." "Like hell he is." The drunken Texan argued. "He never noticed her when she was alive, but I did, Cath! She was special to me. Like a sister."  
She wiped tears from her eyes and nodded. "She was special, but she wouldn't want you to drink yourself to death..." "I'm not." He muttered and then went to lean forward. Catherine caught him and pulled him off the ledge and safely on to the concrete roof. "Nick!" She screamed as her tears and grief over flooded her. "We've already lost one of the family, don't make it two."  
She sat with him crying in her arms for over an hour before he'd calmed down enough to make his way off the roof and down into Grissom's office. Catherine was calling a doctor and Nick was avoiding Grissom's gaze.  
"It's not your fault." He finally said. "I know how persuasive Sara could be. I don't blame you Nick..." "So I can work the case?" He pleaded desperately. Grissom shook his head.  
  
"Not in this state. The doctor's coming to give you a sedative, but maybe tomorrow we can let you do some work at the lab."  
The doctor arrived a few minutes later, but Nick didn't need a sedative the alcohol had knocked him out and Catherine took him home and stayed with him so he didn't choke in his sleep.  
Grissom stayed at the lab all night with Warrick and investigated the evidence they'd taken from Sara' place. He left Warrick with the evidence and took the case folder Sara had assembled at home on her stalking. She'd done all the work for the. She had details on the Mercedes, on the break in and she'd even made a list of suspects with their motives.  
He smiled weakly. She 'd always been devoted to the job, but he doubted she expected that Grissom would use the case to find her murderer. He swore he would find out the truth though.  
As he checked the list of suspects he paused at a familiar name. He slammed his fist off the desk and swore. If it were the man Sara had listed as the prime suspect then Grissom would kill him. He'd already gotten away once.  
When the phone rang he composed himself and answered. "Gill Grissom."  
  
"Mr. Grissom, this is David. Do you want a copy of the report that Nick asked for?" "What report?" He asked. "He's not on the case."  
  
"Oh...well..."  
  
"David?" "I guess you haven't seen it. Sara was...she was raped." He hung up before David could say anything more and shook violently as he went to find Brass. He needed a search warrant for a certain Doctor. No one touched his Sara. 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer and Anthony .E. Zuicker Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13 A/N: Indicate a flash back   
  
Chapter four  
  
Vincent Lurie and his equally arrogant lawyer sat in the interrogation room and stared at the stone face of Jim Brass. To sit in the same room as the man who might have killed Sara took his entire exterior calm and Grissom had been ordered to stay out of the room, so Catherine was sitting next to Brass. Her arms folded in a professional manner and a look on her face that dared Lurie to say anything that would give her an excuse to have him arrested.  
"I was told this was about a CSI?" His lawyer broke the silence. "My client was innocent of the last murder you tried to frame him for and is innocent of this one too...what's wrong? Running out of hard working, law abiding citizens to set up?"  
Catherine kept her cold gaze locked on Lurie as she placed the crime scene photographs on the table in front of him. "I'm sure you recognize CSI Sidle." He looked down as though it was laboured chore and shook his head. "Perhaps if she didn't have half her face blown off..." Brass jumped up, knocking his chair flying backwards and went to grab the doctor, but Catherine got to Brass first. "Jim! It won't help." He shot one piercing look at him and then sat back down after picking up his chair from the floor.  
"Mr Lurie..." "Doctor." "Doctor Lurie, did you ever come into contact with miss Sidle during the previous investigation?" "No. I would have remembered her..." "Because she looks like your dead girlfriend?" Brass took a cheap shot and was rewarded with Lurie flinching. "The resemblance is uncanny." Catherine smiled. He'd slipped up and let himself be bated.  
"How would you know Mr. Lurie? You've never met her." His eyes darted from the CSI to his lawyer. "The photograph..." "The one of a three year old crime and not Miss Sidle?" Catherine smirked. "How about you cut the crap and start talking?" Brass suggested. "Miss Sidle was being stalked, she had a list of suspects; you were suspect number one. Would you mind telling me why a CSI, third class, would think that?"  
"Maybe she was just lonely, had to invent an imaginary stalker..." He looked directly into the glass that Grissom stood behind, observing the interrogation. "Maybe no one took a risk on her and she was all alone. A little lost butterfly all alone in the big bad world." "Actually she wasn't." Catherine objected. "She may have been dedicated to the job and barely went home, but she had a family who cared about her. Some of us more than others, she just didn't realize."  
Grissom was close to tears as he remembered his speech to Vincent Lurie only a few weeks earlier. If he'd just taken a risk and told her how he felt then maybe she'd still be alive. He'd word that word a lot lately. Maybe.  
Maybe her death was quick, maybe she didn't suffer and maybe she was happy at peace. He despised the word now. Sara Sidle was dead there was no maybe about it. He blanked out from the conversation in the next room and thought of the last chat he and Sara had had.  
"Sara, we need to talk." She looked quizzically at his sweeping statement. "Care to tell me what this about?" She asked as they stood in his office and he stared past her. His face was set in a hard, determined manner and she knew she was about to get an earful. "Is anything wrong? You've seemed...distant lately." His caring tone caught her off guard. "No." She lied. She'd wanted to end the conversation there, but he continued. "You could tell me if something was wrong, you know that, right?" She looked past him at the wall behind his desk. "No, Grissom. No I can't." She'd left before he could object and went to find Nick for the case they were working on.   
When Lurie and his lawyer left the room his attention was snapped back to the task at hand and he stormed out of the observation room to confront Catherine. "Why the hell isn't he behind bars?" He shouted. Catherine's motherly face looked at him sadly as though she was consoling Lindsay.  
  
"He has an alibi, Gill. He was performing a five hour operation on the nigh to of Sara's...it still seems weird to say death." "She's only been gone two days." Grissom objected. "It'll still seem weird in weeks, in years; the sad part is I remember consoling families of victims, telling them it'll get easier, but it doesn't...Sara's gone and she's left me behind."  
"Actually..." David interrupted from behind. "I think the DNA lab messed up, I took a second DNA sample after I noticed a birth mark that shouldn't have been on the victims arm. The second test revealed the women had been dead for two days before we discovered the body...it isn't Sara."  
Catherine's eyes flooded with tears of relief. "She could be alive?" Grissom was in between a state of sheer joy, shock and anger. "I'll kill the little..." He stormed off before Catherine could react and reached the DNA lab where Greg Saunders was sitting playing with M&Ms, trying to throw them into his mouth. He fell as Grissom's fist connected with his jaw. 


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer and Anthony .E. Zuicker Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13 A/N: Indicate a flash back   
  
Chapter Five  
  
Greg fell to the floor and defensively raised his fists, but when the young man saw a fuming, red faced, Grissom he lowered them and looked at Grissom with shock.  
Catherine, who had grabbed Brass on the way to the lab, rushed in and picked Greg up from the floor while Brass held Grissom back. "You useless, good for nothing lay about!" He roared. "You did something to her! Where is she Greg? Why did you fix the samples?" At this both Catherine and Brass turned their attention to the frightened lab technician. "I...what? What test?"  
Brass and Catherine sat in the interrogation room for the second time that night, but this time Greg sat opposite them. "I didn't fix any test!" He objected. "I got the sample from the courier and analysed it. It came back as the DNA of Sara Sidle. I swear I didn't do anything. Why would I?" "You've been rejected by Sara numerous times. Maybe you were jealous, just wanted to cause her a little trouble. So you started following her, then you just had to get closer, so you abducted her. Stole a body from a funeral parlour and fixed the results." Brass had never been fond of Greg, but in Catherine's eyes his allegation was over the top.  
At first it had seemed like Nick was too blame, now Greg was being implicated. Who would be next? Warrick? Grissom? David? She nudged Jim under the table with her foot and he took the message. "I'm going for a coffee." He stood up and never gave Greg so much as a second glance.  
"Greg, you're hiding something." She stared him directly in the eyes and watched the already terrified young man crumple. His eyes became watery and his happy go lucky act had completely gone.  
  
"I promised her I wouldn't tell." He mumbled as he held his clenched fist to his mouth. "I promised." "Sara could still be alive, but it's past 48 hours, her chances are getting slimmer by the second. Greg, you need to tell me if you know something."  
He looked up to the woman who had allowed him to work a career breaking case and had helped him to get out in the field and nodded in acceptance.  
"Sara thought...she suspected...um...she thought that maybe..." "Take your time." She reassured him. "She suspected Vincent Lurie was watching her, then she saw someone." "Who?" "She didn't say, but she was really freaked about it. She mentioned something about Lady Heather though; she went to see her a few days ago."  
Once again by the time she reached the observation room Grissom was on his way out the door. "No!" She objected. "You're too close; in two ways. I'll go and talk to her. Oh, and Gill, if you're not careful you'll be kicked off the case. Just keep that temper in check, okay?"  
Lady Heather answered the door after the third knock and glanced briefly at Catherine. "Please, come in." She stepped aside and allowed her to enter the large house. "How may I help?" "Sara Sidle." Catherine measured her reaction to Sara's name and found an intriguing response. "She went after him, didn't she?" "Who?"  
Lady Heather shook her head in disbelief. "I told her to tell Mr. Grissom, but she was too stubborn. Now he has her." "Who?" She repeated anxiously. "Who has her?" She looked up under heavy black eyeliner and sighed. "I have had a man here every night for the past two months. He always requested Alicia, he said it reminded him off her." She called to a woman in the hallway and she entered.  
"Miss Willows, this is Alicia." She gasped at the young brunette. Her hair was just like Sara's, her eyes were the same, at first glance his woman could have been Sara, but a second revealed something Sara would never allow herself to be submitted to. Her left eye was swollen and her bottom lip was cut. "He did that to her four days ago, he said she wasn't good enough anymore, she wasn't Sara."  
"Lady Heather, who did this?" "A man named Will Slade. He is an FBI agent. He worked with Sara five years ago, he became obsessed with her and she requested to be taken off the case they were on, but she knew all the details and had to follow it through. Once he returned to the FBI he would call her multiple times a day, show up at work and hassle her. Then when Sara transferred here he lost touch, but three weeks ago he showed up again." Catherine read Lady Heathers' statement to the other CSI in Grissom's office, including Greg.  
Grissom made a phone call and with in minutes it was official, they would take police back up and search Slade's apartment in Las Vegas. He could easily have tampered with the DNA sample and given Greg the wrong sample, Grissom was sure Sara would be all right, he could feel it. The warrant ink was still drying as they stormed into the apartment near the strip. "Clear!" "Clear!" "All clear!" Three of the policemen shouted as they searched the room they'd been assigned, but the last officer, Brass, shouted something different. "Call an ambulance, now!"  
Grissom, Catherine, Greg, Nick and Warrick raced to the backroom where Jim had called from and gasped as they entered. "What the..." Nick faltered. There was so much blood pooling beneath the victim. It had soaked her brown hair and made it cling to her face. "Not again." Grissom muttered. He couldn't have the hope of her being alive torn away from him again. His aching heart couldn't take it, just like his eyes couldn't take in the sight that lay before him. Even if the ambulance arrived any second it would be too late, but after all, all butterflies die sometime or another, it was part of life, but he couldn't understand why he had to lose his.  
He was an entomologist and Sara Sidle had been the most amazing butterfly he had ever met, but he hadn't had the courage to try and capture it's beauty and now it was gone. 


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer and Anthony .E. Zuicker Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13 A/N: Indicate a flash back   
  
Chapter 6  
  
He bent down towards the body with his latex gloves on and went to move the hair from her eyes. "Griss...the coroner...we can't touch the body." Catherine stumbled through tears. Losing Sara was bad enough, but twice in a few days was too much.  
Grissom's eyes turned to dark, raging storms. "It's Sara, not a body." His hand crept closer to her face and finally moved away the hair. "Oh man..." Nick gasped. "Alicia..." Grissom stood up to his full height and turned to Brass. "I want Sara found, now and Will Slade arrested immediately."  
He left Warrick and Nick to process the body of the dead woman and left with Catherine to go back to the lab. What he found on his desk drained the colour from the senior investigator's tired face.  
The plain brown envelope had his name written on in Sara's handwriting. He opened it with trembling hands as Catherine watched anxiously. The only thing inside was a photograph and three news clippings.  
  
The photo was of Sara standing in the observation room, her back to the camera, but it was what he saw through the window that caused him to gasp. He was sitting in the interrogation room with Vincent Lurie standing by the door. She'd been listening to everything he'd said! Heard every pain staking word that he had said and she hadn't mentioned a thing. Worst of all whoever had taken the picture had to work at the lab so one of her colleagues had taken her and done who-knows-what. He placed the photograph on his desk and picked out one of the news cuttings.  
  
"Local CSI has new lead" "Local CSI Sara Sidle today told this reporter that a 'new lead was being investigated' in the case involving twenty three year old Amber Bennett. The college student died three weeks ago due to what the coroner described as 'dire injuries due to over four days of inhumane torture.'  
Miss Sidle, a friend of Kent Bennett, Amber's brother, is the lead CSI in the investigation and currently has interviewed four college students in connection with Amber's death. Many who knew Amber are praising the CSI for their work so far and this reporter would like to personally thank Sara Sidle for her assistance in my friend's murder inquiry.  
By Chris Stamen"  
  
"This is from five years ago." Grissom muttered to Catherine as she read through the article. "It could be the case that she worked with Slade. I'll check the other articles, you go see if you can contact Sara's boss and get the case file for the Amber Bennett investigation." When Catherine had left he took out the other two articles and read the next one aloud to himself.  
"Who killed Amber?" "Your guess is as good as the local crime lab. It's been two months and the authorities are still chasing Sidle's lead. Our friend Amber still has no justice and Sidle and her FBI 'friend' seem more concerned about their love lives than about the case. While they flirt and fondle the case grows increasingly cold and Amber's killer is free on the streets.  
By Chris Stamen."  
  
He refused to believe that Sara could screw up a case by personal problems. She was too professional, but that was five years ago. Had she still been the determined, work addicted CSI? Or had she really let Amber down. When he took out the last cutting he got his answer.  
"We give up"  
  
"After three months authorities have given up on the pursuit of Amber's killer and the great CSI Miss Sidle has commented with "Amber was my friend too, I want justice as badly as anyone else, but the investigation has gone cold." As has her love life. FBI agent Slade has left after an accusation from Sidle that he was stalking her and becoming violent, well all this reporter has to say is that justice is always delivered, Sidle got her punishment for failing Amber and whoever killed her will get theirs."  
BY Chris Stamen." 


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer and Anthony .E. Zuicker Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13 A/N: Indicate a flash back I messed up by putting chapter eight before seven. This is the real chapter seven.  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Grissom stood beside the police car that Brass was by with the megaphone as he called to Slade. "Give it up, Slade. It's over, now come out with your hands up and no one gets hurt."  
Will Slade sat in the front room and stared at Sara who was sitting opposite him on the couch. "Do you remember the first time we met?" She ignored him. She'd ignored him since he came and took her from her apartment. "I wasn't stalking you Sara, I did all this to protect you." She looked at him with one of her trademark frowns.  
He sent back one of his own. "You never listen do you? I'm trying to help you, to ease your conscience..."  
  
"My Conscience?" She snapped. "How could you ease my conscience?" His gaze dropped to the floor of the rented house. "Amber."  
One word was enough to make Sara's defiant façade drop and her eyes to fill with tears and curiosity. It had been so long since she had worked Amber's case that she hadn't remembered the sense of guilt it brought. She'd failed Amber. "I have a new lead." He continued." But you only get it if you drop the charges; just say you came with of your own free will. Deal?" She looked up in to his pleading eyes and was about to answer when her attention was diverted to Grissom outside on the megaphone.  
  
"Sara, if you can hear me, then don't worry. We'll have you out in no time. Just don't...don't do anything stupid...Slade, my name is Gill Grissom, I'm a colleague of Sara's and I doubt either of us wants her to get hurt. Let her go and we can sort things out."  
Will watched as Sara listened to the man outside and a small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. She used to smile at him like that when they worked together, but now she only frowned.  
"Do we have a deal?" He repeated. His tone emotionless and business like. "I promise it's worth your while."  
  
"Why didn't you follow it up? Why go to these extremes? Why stalk me?"  
"First of all I didn't stalk you, I saw some middle aged doctor hanging around you a lot, go accuse him. Secondly I've been banned from the case, because of the guilt I spent four years trying to solve the damn case and it...it got to me, but I've been teetotal for months now. Not that it matters, because I was forced into taking a 'vacation'. You're the only one who can help Amber. Please Sara, if not for me then for Amber and her family." He bent down and untied the restraints on her arms and legs. "It's your choice."  
He held out his gun to her and his handcuffs. "I'm not getting out of here, I know that, but I refuse to go out in a body bag because I tried to bring closure to a family. The balls' in your court."  
Grissom held his breath as the door opened and all guns were pointed at the suburban home. He hadn't expected Sara to come walking out with Slade's gun in the air and Slade in handcuffs. The armed officers rushed forward and had both Slade and Sara shoved to the ground and searched for weapons. Grissom ran over to her and pushed away the officer that was handcuffing her. "She's CSI." He removed the cuffs and held her tightly in a comforting embrace, but she pushed him away and went over to Brass who was reading Slade his rights.  
"Brass, let him go. I went with him of my own free will." He paused then put Slade with two officers who escorted him to a squad car. "It's out of your hands Sara, there's the small matter of the body that was stolen from a funeral home and a second body found at his apartment."  
"What body? We were there yesterday, there was no body..." Brass looked towards Grissom for support before continuing. "The body of Alicia Silverman was found there this afternoon, she was his...she worked for Lady Heather and...well had a striking resemblance to you." 


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Lost Butterflies Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own. Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer and Anthony .E. Zuicker Spoilers: Set after Butterflied Rating: PG-13 A/N: Indicate a flash back   
  
Chapter 8  
  
"You son of a bi-" "We had a deal!" Slade objected as he sat in the interview room. He knew Detective Brass and the senior CSI, Grissom, were watching, but he didn't care. "I gave you the information and you turned me in!" He sulked like a chastised child.  
"I kept my end of the bargain, you just failed to mention the dead body in my apartment that ended up having a sample of its DNA switched so everyone thought I was dead, or your dead playmate. Alicia Silverman."  
He sunk into his chair. "What are you talking about? What body? What playmate?" Sara sat down opposite him. "Don't play coy Will, you know what body and you damn well know who Alicia Silverman is." She practically threw the morgue pictures at him. He looked at the lifeless body of Alicia Silverman and frowned. "I've never seen that woman before." "Oh, really?" Sara heard the door handle click and quickly put a chair under the handle to stop anyone gaining access. Brass and Grissom had no idea she was in there; they thought she was still at the hospital. She heard Brass' muffled protest then he left and undoubtedly went next door to look through the glass.  
"Lady Heather told us you were a frequent visitor of Alicia's, until she just didn't work for you and you kidnapped me!" "I've never heard of Lady Heather and this wasn't about you Sara. It was about Amber." He roared. "If you don't let Brass in right now then you'll lose your job and you couldn't tolerate that. So open the door!  
"Sara I swear to you I am not a murderer. Someone's set me up..." Thud, thud, thud. They had a battering ram at the door and it wouldn't be long before it gave way. "Trust me Sara, I didn't do this. Look, just investigate what I found out, please?"  
She moved the chair and it swung open as they rammed into it. She'd expected Grissom to be red in the face and lecture her, but he just looked sadly at her. With a 'poor little Sara' look on his face. She couldn't stand it.  
"I'm taking a vacation." She muttered as she walked out of the small room. "Make sure Will is treated fairly." She walked past Grissom, past Catherine and Warrick who both held betraying looks of sympathy underneath their smiles. Nick hugged her briefly and muttered his joy at her being alive, but she continued past them to the locker room. She was taking a vacation to Golem to find justice for Amber Bennett. Screw what Grissom thought, or how glad everyone was that she was back.  
She went through the appropriate channels and used her vacation time to get two weeks off. As she was packing her SUV Greg pulled up outside her house and smiled. "Heard you were going on 'vacation'. You're going to solve the Bennett case aren't you?" "No..."  
  
"I want in." Greg objected. "I followed the case five years ago and it'd be good experience."  
She sighed as she loaded her last bag. "Greg, the case was cold when I worked it, it's been five years...I barely have a cat in hell's chance..." He smiled mischievously and when he left his car he handed her a slip of paper. "Slade handed it to me as they took him to the state pen," He explained. "He's got a lead and I wanna' help."  
She read the note and smiled to herself. "Sara, you know I love my job, we're both devoted to what we do, please help me finish what I started. Will." "Fine, just get your stuff in my car fast. We're late already." At Greg's confused look she explained. "We're five years too late for Amber and you've got a lot of catching up to do."  
  
Fin. 


End file.
